Does Malibu Pilates Really Work?

Malibu Pilates consists of a specially made chair, workout DVDs, a wall chart and a manual that is supposed to help make doing Pilates easier and more fun. At this price point you definitely want to do your due diligence to make sure you won’t have buyer’s remorse, and we’re here to help you with your research.

Overview
Pilates is a great workout that stretches out the body and provides a long, slender, and limber physique. Some say it’s akin to yoga because it typically doesn’t use any extra weight or resistance, other than your own body weight. It can also be a way for you to calm down your mind after a busy day, and really unwind, since you don’t have to get “pumped up” to do the exercises. The focus is on slow and controlled motions that are designed to strengthen and tone the body naturally.

The Claim
The makers of Malibu Pilates say that you don’t have to have any previous experience with Pilates, because they include instructional DVDs on how to use the chair, and these incorporate Pilates movements right into them. They say that with the included DVDs you’ll be put through a cardio routine that will help you burn the fat, and sculpting programs that will allow you to pick and choose which muscles you want to accentuate, even going for total body sculpting.

The Hype
You may remember Susan Lucci from such daytime dramas as All My Children, but she’s also an entrepreneur, and is a spokesperson for this pilates device. She’s 66 and still looking great, and attributes at least a portion of that success with this chair. Of course, paid spokespeople might not be the best source of unbiased recommendations, and the success stories are usually those that had an unusually good experience with the product. What we’re really after is what does the typical user experience when they try this out for an extended period of time.

The Cost
The Malibu Pilates system comes in two forms, a standard one with no handles, and a deluxe one with handles and other goodies. The standard Pro version comes to $375 all together, and the deluxe Pro version is $555. They have it set up so that your only initial cost is $15, and they give you 30 days to try it and return it if you don’t like it. After that they start billing you monthly payments of $60 for the standard, and $90 for the deluxe until you’re paid off.

The Commitment
Pilates is a type of exercise that you have to do regularly if you want to see the results. If you’ve never tried it before you might want to find a Pilates program on YouTube and see if you like it before investing hundreds of dollars in a special chair. It might make it easier and more effective to do Pilates, but if you don’t like that type of exercise nothing is going to magically make it something you enjoy doing.

Evaluation
It’s easy to see that the Malibu Pilates chair won’t take up much room in the house, and you don’t need a lot of room to complete the exercises. It folds away for easy storage when not in use, so it has that benefit going for it, compared to other workout devices that are big and heavy and take up a lot of space. Overall, the feedback has been pretty positive, which we don’t see too often in the fitness market. Most people say that this is well put together, and that the workouts are presented in a way that you can actually follow along with without getting disappointed or demotivated. That’s essentially the key to Pilates, and it’s a break from all of the high-intensity go-all-out workouts that have been all the rage in recent years.

Users are reporting that it’s easy to assemble once you get it home, which means you can get started on your first workout fast, without the downtime typically involved with more complicated fitness gadgets. While you can’t necessarily travel with the chair, you can move it throughout the house with ease, so if one day you want to workout in your bedroom, and another day you want to workout in front of the TV in the living room, it’s versatile like that.

Final Malibu Pilates Review

The Malibu Pilates system is getting our Solid Try review, but with a few conditions. First, make sure that you have tried Pilates and seem to like it. Next, take them up on their $15 trial offer and make sure that if you don’t like it you get a return authorization with that first month. As long as you follow those two steps you should be all set and should really enjoy the unit if you choose to keep it. The reviews from real users point to this being a success, and living up to the claims made in the infomercial. It combines essential Pilates exercises but makes them more comfortable and easier to do with the chair.

Our Recommendation
Pilates is a great way to exercise and for some it can be all that they need to maintain the body that they want. If you’re more into weightlifting and getting strong, you can combine a PIlates workout a few times per week in addition to more standard strength training with weights. It will help you stretch your muscle out between workouts and give you a better overall lean look.

What do you think? Does Malibu Pilates work or not?